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Topic: Rare gem variants? (Read 3652 times)

I was just thinking... I know that diamonds come in a few different colors and though that perhaps it would be a neat addition to the game to add a couple of these colors as a -rare- variant when looking for gemstones. Where it's clear they're diamond, but it has a touch of a certain color. What do you think?

I'm not sure what differently colored gems would add to the game - we already have plenty of underused gems with too few available-to-all crafting recipes for them. I'd love to see super duper rare forage finds of any kind, though. Imagine the plots set in motion by some random grebber stumbling across a small copper deposit.

Ability to properly assess what an item actually might be would be determined by your Guild and your level in the relevant crafting skill, such as Stone crafting or Jewelry crafting.

Don't have the ability to determine your stuff for value, yourself? Give that merchant in the Bazaar something to do. Bring your stuff and for a fee, they'll assess it for value and any hidden properties.

« Last Edit: March 13, 2017, 08:35:50 PM by Pale Horse »

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Quote from: Dalmeth

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I would love it if there were really rare things you could find through forage. It would do really cool things for the world.

I see this as a game design problem though...

What you don't want is a grindy system where players are incentivized to spam forage over and over again for days on end in hopes of getting that one in a million item. I know from experience that true RNG can do some pretty awful things to player behavior, and I'm not sure if Armageddon is advanced enough to handle the pseudo-RNG mechanics of more modern games.

If I had to go about doing this, I would hand place the rare thing at a set interval, using a random number generator to choose which room to put it in using that nifty 'bury' code. If the room doesn't make sense for the item in question, re-roll until I found a room that does. That would cut down on the need to spam, and increase the value of exploration.

If I had to go about doing this, I would hand place the rare thing at a set interval, using a random number generator to choose which room to put it in using that nifty 'bury' code. If the room doesn't make sense for the item in question, re-roll until I found a room that does. That would cut down on the need to spam, and increase the value of exploration.

I would love it if there were really rare things you could find through forage. It would do really cool things for the world.

If I had to go about doing this, I would hand place the rare thing at a set interval, using a random number generator to choose which room to put it in using that nifty 'bury' code. If the room doesn't make sense for the item in question, re-roll until I found a room that does. That would cut down on the need to spam, and increase the value of exploration.

Staff have definitely run RPTs in the past based around rare materials (both gems and metal). I admit the idea of seeing them pop up randomly as super rare drops is intriguing, plot wise, but I fear the end result would be the 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' effect, though, where all the cool stuff changes hands a couple of times, then goes to a chest in the richest PC's warehouse to be lost forever. And most PC's probably wouldn't even hear about it.

Staff have definitely run RPTs in the past based around rare materials (both gems and metal). I admit the idea of seeing them pop up randomly as super rare drops is intriguing, plot wise, but I fear the end result would be the 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' effect, though, where all the cool stuff changes hands a couple of times, then goes to a chest in the richest PC's warehouse to be lost forever. And most PC's probably wouldn't even hear about it.

Until someone else gets that warehouse, or finds the secret hideout, etc.

Then they would just keep it in said warehouse, giggling to themself crazily. Or get paid a buttload to sell it to a very wealthy person and the whole cycle begins.

How many commoners would even recognize the difference between a blue diamond and a sapphire, they dont have the technology to differentiate between this blue crystal and that blue crystal, sure there are experts out there but your average Amos the Grebber wouldnt be one, and neither would Talia the gem vendor, at least not to the point where it makes any difference to what the blue crystal is called.

And even then the experts, once more dont have the technology to go and for certain tell you its a blue diamond and not a sapphire, you only have an educated guess and his word that it is indeed very valuable (If he even tells you that to begin with because whats the slogan for Arm?)

Staff have definitely run RPTs in the past based around rare materials (both gems and metal). I admit the idea of seeing them pop up randomly as super rare drops is intriguing, plot wise, but I fear the end result would be the 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' effect, though, where all the cool stuff changes hands a couple of times, then goes to a chest in the richest PC's warehouse to be lost forever. And most PC's probably wouldn't even hear about it.

It doesn't always need to be an ongoing event, it can just be a temporary one. Rich people fighting over who gets the shiny thing, poor people fighting over who gets to keep the shiny thing long enough to sell it, etc.

A nugget of copper could create a whole lot of action, even though it's destined to end up in some noble, templar or merchant house's vault.